Author: TELO Admin

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) staged a protest inside Parliament today against the harassment faced at the hands of the Police yesterday.

The SJB accused the Police of preventing a large number of protesters from reaching Colombo yesterday (Tuesday) to take part in a rally against the Government.

SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara said that the Police was used yesterday to do politics.

He told Parliament that the Police blocked buses transporting protesters to Colombo.

The MP said that the court had not banned the protest but the Police decided to act on their own.

Ranjith Madduma Bandara alleged that a youth who was to attend the protest had also died after being assaulted by the Police.

The protest was staged against the Government and was conducted on the main road at Galle Face.

Ranjith Madduma Bandara said that the SJB will stage more protests against the Government.

Ahead of the protest the Police had also closed most public parking spaces in Colombo to prevent vehicles used by the protesters from being parked at those locations.

A Sri Lankan parliamentarian has urged the government to legalize cannabis cultivation amid protests by religious leaders.

Diana Gamage, a government lawmaker, said cannabis cultivation can solve the foreign exchange crisis by bringing in billions of dollars to the country.

“The country can be freed from debt through the legalization and export of cannabis cultivation,” she said in parliament on Nov.16. “We do not have to beg or borrow money from anyone. This resource given by nature should be legalized and exported with state patronage to earn foreign exchange.”

Gamage pointed out how various products such as beauty creams, toothpaste and toothbrushes are produced using cannabis around the world and said it presented “a great opportunity” in an environment where tea, rubber and coconut have lost their former place in the international market.

Some political parties like the Social Democratic Party (SDP) along with indigenous doctors had urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to legalize cannabis for self-immunization.

SDP secretary Thusitha Balasuriya had said it would be an important and revolutionary decision to be taken for the betterment of Sri Lankans.

We learned through the media that some businessmen and leaders of the underworld who deal with drugs have a good rapport with even religious leaders
Religious leaders criticized the government move last year. Ven. Ittapana Dhammalankara Thera, the chief prelate of Kotte Sri Kalayani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha of Siyam Maha Nikaya, called for immediate action to stop the promotion of cannabis.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith issued a pastoral letter in April 2019 urging all parishes and church institutions to denounce drug peddlers. Catholic priests, nuns and laypeople organized several protest marches and rallies against the increasing abuse of illegal drugs across the island nation.

Cannabis cultivation is banned in Sri Lanka even though it is allowed to be grown in sufficient quantities for use as an Ayurvedic traditional medicine.

About 40,000 people die every year in the country due to drug abuse, alcohol consumption and smoking.

A Catholic priest who did not want to be named said cannabis was being widely promoted on social media. “We learned through the media that some businessmen and leaders of the underworld who deal with drugs have a good rapport with even religious leaders,” he said.

Nimal Fernando, an activist who organizes anti-drug activities for schoolchildren, said: “We must protect people, especially children, from drug abuse. Sixty people die every day due to smoking. Fifty die because of alcohol abuse.”

Source: UCA News

Tens of thousands of supporters of Sri Lanka’s main opposition party rallied in the capital Colombo to protest the nation’s economic struggles, the first major campaign against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government since it swept to power last August.

Defying heavy sporadic rains, tightened Covid-19 guidelines and court orders, supporters of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya — led by party head Sajith Premadasa and other leaders — marched toward the president’s office in Colombo on Tuesday, carrying placards and shouting slogans against spiraling prices and shortages worsened by a foreign exchange crisis that’s led to import controls. Those converging to the capital from other provinces were turned back by police.

Participants included farmers, a key vote bank for the ruling party and opposition, who have been protesting a government decision to ban imported chemical fertilizers as key crops, including tea and paddy, start to fail.

The protests pose no immediate threat to Rajapaksa, whose government commands a two-thirds majority in parliament. His government last week said the opposition’s decision to call for street protests may lead to an increase in coronavirus infections and the country could “be shut down again.”

Sri Lanka this week halted crude processing at its only refinery to conserve its foreign exchange reserves — which are at the lowest since 2009 — for importing essential goods. The South Asian nation faces $1.5 billion of debt maturities next year even as efforts to shore up the pile through foreign investment haven’t yet succeeded and earnings from sectors such as tourism and remittances have been hit by the pandemic.

“This is a serious crisis, people are not sure what is going to happen,” said Jehan Perera, executive director at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. “It shows that people are willing to come out to show their displeasure even knowing that this government has three more years.”

The government, which has curbed imports from milk powder, sugar and cement to conserve foreign exchange, leading to shortages, has said it’s working on other measures to increase dollar inflows.

Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers has discussed seeking an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout at the latest cabinet meeting, a spokesman said, amid rising difficulties in importing cooking gas and some foods, even as the country’s refinery was shut to save forex.

“There was an in depth discussion on the pros and cons of going to the IMF, but no decision was taken,” co-cabinet spokesman and Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told the weekly cabinet news briefing on Tuesday (16).

Sri Lanka is facing forex shortages after record money printing in 2020 and 2021 deplete forex reserves, and undermined the credibility of a soft-peg with the US dollar.

The government has presented a budget with higher taxes for 2022 but interest rates are still relatively low and liquidity injections are made to sterilise interventions.

State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) shut its refinery on Monday (15) saying its relatively high share of furnace oil was not needed for power generation due to rains and available forex was better used to import fuels that are immediately needed.

Sri Lanka has been having forex troubles for 70 years since a money printing central bank was set up in 1950 but no meaningful reforms have been made to curb the monetary board to print money and keep rates down de-stabilizing a peg.